The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Mars Theatre), Lafayette, Indiana

The City of Lafayette is fortunate to have Long Center of the Performing Arts for use as a community cultural facility. Located in the heart of downtown Lafayette, the theatre seats 1200 people. Built as Mars Theatre was built in 1920-21 by the Luna Amusement Company it began life as a vaudeville house. In 1977 Mr. Irving Long, President of 4th Avenue Amusement Corp., donated the Mars Theatre to the city of Lafayette as a memorial to his father, Purdue alumnus Dennis H. Long. In 1981 the Long Center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1981 the Long Center has undergone major renovations. Interior and exterior architectural features were restored, the roof and boiler repaired, walls repainted and wool carpeting installed throughout. A tile floor was added to the outer lobby, and offices upgraded and refurbished. Long Center has become the permanent home of the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, providing this expanding organization with office space and an appropriate site for rehearsals and performances. Long Center continues to provide a full season of events for the community.

The story of the Mars Theatre, now the Long Center for the Performing Arts, and its history with the theatre organ is really the story of four pipe organs. When the theatre opened in 1921, it could be said that it was less than the proud owner of a 3/10 Smith-Geneva pipe organ that lasted in the theatre just three years. In 1924, a 3/10 Wurlitzer was installed, and remained in the theatre until the early 1960s. It was purchased by the former national president of ATOS, Al Mason, and installed in his Michigan home. Following his death, this instrument was purchased by and installed in the Palace Theatre in Marion, Ohio.

When operation of the Long Center was taken over by the city of Lafayette, longtime resident Carroll Copeland and local sportscaster Ken Double began the task of fund-raising to acquire an instrument to install in the theatre. In February of 1982, a hodge-podge of pipework that ended up a 3-14 organ was premiered to back-to-back opening night sell-out concerts. That organ was never fully completed, and as difficulties with its playability continued, it was determined that a replacement would be necessary.

A major fund-raising effort, combined with profits from a most successful organ series, provided the monies for a new pipe organ. In 1989, a sparkling new three-manual console (originally from the United Artists theatre in Detroit) was wired into the 14 ranks that played. In the winter of 1991-92, the Crome Organ Company, assisted by Carlton Smith, completed an installation of 21 ranks of mostly Wurlitzer pipe work, providing the state of Indiana its largest in-theatre pipe organ.